It promises to be a world of fun

While some major-leaguers in North America may not be thrilled with the Classic, choosing to take a pass, elsewhere it's a big deal

February 27, 2006|By Phil Rogers, Tribune baseball reporter.

Like the last drops out of the coffeemaker, one by one, prominent major-league players have been bailing out on the World Baseball Classic over the last few months, with the pace picking up as the event draws near.

If all you did was follow those headlines, you'd think that North American major-leaguers, the group always considered as the cream of the world's baseball elite, had rejected the WBC as a trivial nuisance. You'd also be wrong.

For every in-demand player who has decided not to play, mostly for reasons of health or uncertain professional standing--although for some like Buehrle and Gary Sheffield, pure indifference appears the reason--there are many others who consider it a wonderful opportunity.

Most of those who enter the United States with a work visa or passport, especially those from foreign countries, are thrilled to get a chance to compete against Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter and the stacked Team USA.

"We've got 25 million people in Venezuela," said Detroit Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez, a longtime White Sox player. "At least 24 million are going to be watching the games."

Enthusiasm outside U.S.

A recent three-day mini-camp for Venezuelan players drew crowds of more than 8,000 per day just to watch workouts. That enthusiasm is typical of how the 16-nation WBC--or Classic, as it's already known in the Latin countries--is being embraced outside the United States.

While Commissioner Bud Selig and organizers for the event with Major League Baseball and the players' union admit it has suffered some start-up problems, the biggest being the delayed approval given Cuban participation by the U.S. Treasury Department, they believe the event is coming together to be a success.

"It's going to be a lot of fun," said Gene Orza, associate executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

"It will be a lot of fun watching Johan Santana in that [Venezuelan] uniform facing David Ortiz in that [Dominican Republic] uniform. I think when people watch the games, they'll say, `This is fun."'

While the New York Yankees and many other teams have moaned about the WBC distracting from preparation for the season, the organizers expect the competition to be popular with major-league players, who often get bored during spring training.

"I think the success of this first tournament will be measured by one thing--that's players coming out telling other players they should have played, that it was fun," Orza said. "My guess is that next time we will not have all the same questions we've had this time."

First games Thursday

The WBC begins with the Asian pool (Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and China) playing Thursday night through Sunday in Tokyo. Team USA and all the other nations except Cuba report for a brief camp on Friday. First-round pools begin on March 7 in Phoenix (U.S., Canada, Mexico and South Africa), Orlando (the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands).

The top two teams from the four round-robin pools advance to secondary round-robins March 12-16 in Anaheim and San Juan. The four teams that survive those rounds--most likely the U.S., Japan, the Dominican Republic and either Venezuela or Cuba--go to San Diego for a Final Four-style, single-elimination final round, with the semifinals March 18 and the championship game March 20.

Paul Archey, the event's primary organizer, acknowledges that there will be empty seats in some venues but says he expects the 39 games to attract more than 800,000 fans, outdrawing the Winter Olympics. The three games in San Diego are expected to be sellouts.

Team USA, with a deep bullpen and a rotation of Jake Peavy, Dontrelle Willis and Clemens, will be favored. The Dominican team has an awesome lineup, even without the two Ramirezes, and Venezuela has overpowering pitching to spare.

Cuba and Japan have made the biggest commitments to field strong teams, with the Cubans interrupting their regular season (the Serie Nacional) for six weeks to face this threat to their international dominance. They built their reputation in an era when their pros were competing against amateurs and second-tiers pros. This time they will play against the best players in the world--well, many of the best players in the world, anyway.